Chuck vs the Imagineer
by Dobbo24
Summary: Team Bartowski helps Disney Imagineering track down some stolen technology. Virtual reality has been taken up several levels and some how a very real Flynn/Eugene and Rapunzel have landed in Chuck and Sarah's world. Will they get their happy ending?


**I forgot to mention that I don't own Chuck or Tangled. I just wanted to find a way to make them interact with each other. The story takes place after Season 4, so Chuck and Sarah are newlyweds working with their private company. The Tangled scenes take place just after the lantern scene. In my mind, Rapunzel, like Chuck, won't just 'stay in the boat'. **

"C'mon, guys!" Chuck Bartowski urged. "It's a quick mission to help out an old friend." He'd been surprised to get the call from Joe Walters, one of his old Stanford fraternity brothers, to help recover some stolen research from Disney's Imagineering headquarters in Glendale. "For Disney. "

Casey grunted and narrowed his eyes at Chuck but Chuck simply shook his head slowly. "And all this time I thought you were a true patriot."

"Bartowski," Casey growled in his most menacing tone.

"What? Disney is America," Chuck said. "Mickey Mouse is an American hero. Not even _you_ can deny that."

Casey grunted again but Chuck recognized the grunt as one of grudging almost-agreement. "Sarah?"

His wife smiled up at him. Chuck knew that she was still coming to terms with all of his nerdy interests, including his fascination with Disney imagineers. He also knew that inside the beautiful face and the incredible body, there lived a true nerd just like himself. "As long as it doesn't involve _It's a Small World_, I'm in. Now _that_ ride is a bona fide torture device."

Chuck grinned. In his Stanford days, he would have given anything for a glimpse inside of the imagineering headquarters, the place where a unique mix of artists and engineers made the impossible possible. "Excellent. Morgan?"

"Dude, how could you even ask the question?" Morgan asked. "It's _Disney_."

"Nerd dreams," Casey mumbled.

"Hmph." Sarah rolled her eyes at the gruff ex-Marine. "You're just upset because you won't get to shoot anything."

"C'mon, Casey. Do it for Mickey. Do it for Walt. An assault on Disney is an assault on America," Chuck said dramatically.

Casey grunted again. Chuck smirked. _That_ grunt meant he'd given in. "Thanks."

"What's the plan, Bartowski?"

"Sarah and I will meet with Joe for the details. In the meantime, you and Morgan can run a check on . . ." Chuck consulted the notes he'd scribbled during the phone call, "Oswald Mintz. He disappeared a week ago with some proprietary data on a top secret project he'd been working on, some kind of virtual reality technology being developed for a new attraction involving the movie _Tangled_."

Sarah sighed, a soft smile playing at her lips. For a former CIA agent who could literally kick ass, she'd developed quite an appreciation for sentimental romance. "You know, honey, it would probably be a good idea if the Colonel here actually watched the movie, you know, for background."

Chuck bit back a smile as he imagined Casey watching the animated, _musical_ movie. "You might have something there. Morgan?"

Morgan's head snapped up. "Movie night?"

"Yup. Start the background check and then sit Casey here down to watch the movie."

"Oh, man! Casey you are going to . . . well, honestly, you're going to hate it," Morgan said with glee. "There's singing. Lots and lots of singing . . ."

Casey glared at them each in turn, ending with a long, deadly stare into Chuck's eyes. "You owe me, Bartowski," he growled as he pushed his chair back and stalked from the room.

"We know," Chuck and Sarah said cheerfully and in newlywed unison. "We always do."

* * *

><p>"I'm not sure I understand why you called <em>me<em>," Chuck said at dinner. "I just work at the BuyMore."

"Huh," Joe said, one eyebrow lifting slowly. "Not according to Larkin."

Chuck gulped and glanced at Sarah. "Oh? And what _exactly_ did Larkin tell you?"

"Only that you do some sort of private security work on the side. He also told me that he'd been . . . misled . . . about the tests." Joe met Chuck's eyes. "I never believed it. I'd have told you that back then, but you disappeared." He glanced over at Sarah. "Looks like things have turned out well in the end."

Chuck looked at his wife and a slow, sweet grin spread across his face. "I am a very lucky man," he said softly. "What about you?" he wracked his brain, trying to remember the name of Joe's college girlfriend but came up blank.

"I didn't get out much the first few years at Disney, but when I was sent to Orlando for a year, I found my princess. Literally," he laughed. He pulled out his phone and flipped through some pictures until he found one of an actress dressed up as Belle.

"Nice," Chuck said with an appreciative grin. "So . . ."

"Right, business. Look, Chuck this is all super-sensitive . . ."

"You can trust us," Chuck assured him. "Sarah and I have an excellent team and we've all been through . . . um . . . let's just say a lot together."

"Don't ask questions I don't want to know the answers to?" Joe asked with a grin. "Always knew you were destined for big things, Bartowski." He shrugged and leaned forward to whisper. "I've been asked to handle this . . . er . . . off the record. The technology Mintz was working on . . . is . . . let's just go with impressive. But the project was dropped due to cost and safety concerns."

"What was it?" Sarah asked. "Chuck mentioned some kind of virtual reality."

"Easier if I show you," Joe said. "How'd you feel about a trip to Glendale?"

An hour later, Joe ushered them in to an empty room. One wall was taken up with a giant television screen. The only other thing in the room was a pair of home theater seats with some kind of pull-down head gear.

Chuck looked at Sarah and gave a little shudder. The room was eerily similar to the room where he'd downloaded the Intersect 2.0 and uttered the unlikely words 'guys, I know kung fu' after knocking out a huge contingent of Fulcrum agents. "Creepy," he whispered.

"Have a seat," Joe said, pointing at the chairs. "The idea was to have an attraction that went way beyond what anyone's done with virtual reality to date. With this technology, you can literally step into a different world. If you were to look in a mirror, you'd see yourself animated using the same techniques as in the movie. In this case, _Tangled_. We were using it for testing because it stretched so many boundaries of animation it just seemed natural."

Chuck nodded in agreement. He'd been more than impressed with just how real the animated characters had looked in the movie, clearly animated, but they seemed to have life and breath within them. "Makes sense."

"I understand the cost concerns," Sarah said slowly, "but I'm not sure I understand how virtual reality can be dangerous."

"That's what we don't understand," Joe said. "We think Mintz was trying to ramp things up. We suspect . . . we suspect he was going for _alternate_ reality, not virtual."

"You mean, like some kind of parallel world," Chuck asked. "Wow. That's . . ."

"A nerd's wet dream?" Joe said with a laugh. "Yes, all very _Twilight Zone_."

"But . . . wait," Sarah interrupted. "That's not possible."

Chuck shot her a look that very clearly said you-just-married-a-man-who-had-a-computer-in-his-brain. Sarah's mouth snapped shut. "Maybe you can show us?" Chuck asked.

"You've seen the movie?" When they both nodded, Joe moved over to a panel on the wall. "I'm going to take you . . . briefly . . . into the movie, the scene in the village where Rapunzel and Eugene are dancing. Notice that unlike the experiential theaters like Honey I Shrunk the Audience, there's nothing here to shoot scented air at you, there's nothing in the seat to make you feel anything. These are just ordinary home theater seats with some rather unique technology attached."

Chuck and Sarah settled into the seats, smiling at each other as Joe lowered the head-gear into place. "Have fun."

Chuck squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them, they were assaulted with vibrant colors that didn't quite exist in the natural world. It looked almost as if they'd stepped inside a painting. He turned to look at Sarah and his eyes widened. She was still his Sarah, impossibly beautiful, wearing a sexy purple dress and a wedding ring that matched his. Except, of course, that she was fully animated.

The wide-eyed look of surprise on her face made him hold up his own hand in front of his face. "Don't freak out," he joked.

Sarah laughed and pointed toward the music. A beautiful young woman with a very thick, ankle-length golden braid was dancing in and out amongst the villagers while a roguishly handsome young man watched from the opposite side of the circle.

A large white horse, Maximus, Chuck knew, nudged the young man into the dance. "Wow," Chuck whispered in Sarah's ear. "It's like we're _inside_ the movie."

Sarah took a deep breath. "Smell that? Freshly baked bread," she said pointing down the narrow side street, "from the bakery."

Chuck took her and tugged her toward one of the food carts. He picked up an apple and stuck his hand into his pocket, fishing for some change. When he opened his hand, he had a variety of strange coins with the kingdom's sunburst symbol on it. He tossed a coin to the vendor and held the apple up to his nose. It smelled like an apple, a tart Granny Smith. He looked at Sarah. "So . . ."

She shrugged and Chuck took a bite. He could feel his teeth piercing the skin and sinking into the apple's flesh as a dribble of juice ran down his hand. "Um . . . baby . . . I don't think we're in Burbank anymore."

Sarah giggled and pulled the apple from his hands, sinking her own teeth into it. "Um . . . honey? How is this possible?"

"No idea," he said, shaking his head. "Impressive though."

"Mmm. I wonder . . ."

"What?"

"Can we interact, do you think?"

"Only one way to find out," Chuck said with a grin. He took Sarah's hand and they skirted the crowd until they reached the large white horse on the other side. "So, Max . . ."

The horse, who had been watching the young couple dance with a sappy, satisfied look on his face, turned toward them, his ears flattened. "Who's a good boy?" Sarah said in a passable imitation of Rapunzel. The horse whinnied softly and nuzzled her shoulder. She grinned at Chuck and reached up to stroke his neck. "And you must be Pascal," she said to the small green chameleon perched atop the horse's head.

Chuck held out the rest of the apple. Max tilted his head as if he was trying to decide his trustworthiness before inhaling the apple with painful nip of Chuck's palm. "Ow."

"He bit me," Chuck mumbled as he followed Sarah toward the mosaic portrait of the royal family. She bent and picked up a single blue cornflower and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

"Just curious," she said with a smile. "This is . . . you know, I've experienced some pretty intense things but this . . ."

"Yeah, I know," Chuck breathed. "Makes the intersect look like a Commodore 64."

When Sarah didn't look to him for a de-nerdified explanation, Chuck grinned proudly. "Baby, you do know you're practically a nerd now, right?"

"Yep," she sighed happily. "Well I am part-owner of the Burbank BuyMore and I have spent the last four years learning from the best."

Chuck laughed, wrapping his arms around his wife's waist. "Who said happily ever after only happened in fairy tales?"

Sarah laughed softly, stroking his hands with her own. "I never believed in fairy tales until I met you," Sarah said happily as she gazed at the young dancing couple who had finally ended up in each other's arms. "They look like they're just figuring it out," she said softly.

"They are."

"To the boats," boomed a deep voice. The young couple, Eugene and Rapunzel, reluctantly pulled apart, a slight blush tingeing both of their cheeks. The other young couple, Chuck and Sarah, opened their eyes slowly.

They were back in the empty room in Glendale. The head-gear lifted and they looked at each other, both grinning broadly. Chuck looked at his palm. It bore a red bite mark that could have only been made by a horse. "Whoa."

Sarah took his hand and studied it. "But . . ." She took a deep breath and reached into Chuck's pants pocket. When she pulled out her hand, she held a single, very real, blue cornflower between her fingers.

"There you have it," Joe said. "Now, imagine if you'd ended up in that tower with that lovely narcissist and sociopath Mother Gothel and her ten-inch dagger." He offered them a rueful grin. "Although I'm sure you've probably seen worse."

"Yep. Try working Black Friday at the BuyMore," Chuck joked. "So, this guy Mintz stole the technology for this?"

"He designed it. When the project was killed he went off the deep end and we had no choice but to fire him. Needless to say, he didn't take it well. A week and a half ago, someone broke in here and copied all of the files. A couple of days later Mintz . . ."

"Went off-grid?" Sarah supplied. "What exactly do you think he's planning to do with it?"

"Do you agree that what you experienced was real?"

Chuck nodded slowly. Sarah did too.

"I think he wants to find out if the technology works in reverse," Joe said carefully.

"But why?" Sarah asked, frowning.

"One word," Joe said.

"Villains," Chuck supplied quietly. "The ultimate super-weapons."

"Um, Chuck?" Sarah asked with a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, baby?" he said.

"How the hell are we going to explain this to Casey?"

"Depends on what Joe needs us to do. If it involves blowing something up . . ."

Sarah laughed. "What _do_ you need us to do?"

"Break into his house. We've tried but . . . he's got some really insane security system that we haven't been able to get past."

Chuck and Sarah looked at each other and grinned. "Piece of cake," they said in unison. "Piece of cake."

* * *

><p>"What did you do to it?" Morgan shouted at Casey . The movie was frozen on the screen, just as Eugene, aka Flynn Rider, found himself face to face with the silent, eye-patched Stabbington brother.<p>

"You two fighting again?" Chuck laughed, stopping when he saw that there were no less than five copies of the movie littering the table in Castle. "What the . . ."

"It's so strange," Morgan said. "Every time we get to this point the movie stops. You can't even scene select to get past it . . ." He grinned up at Chuck and Sarah and said, "he now knows all of the words to _I See the Light._"

"So what's the mission?" Casey muttered. "Please tell me it doesn't involve singing ruffians and a horse who thinks he's a bloodhound."

"Nah. Nothing but a disgruntled former employee who's gone off-grid," Chuck said calmly. "Seems like the guys a little paranoid and he's got some pretty major security on his place. Shouldn't be too big a deal."

"Right, we just need to get in, see what the guy's got set up and retrieve anything that belongs to Disney."

Casey grunted. Boring, this one said.

"Probably one night's work," Sarah said. "With a decent payout."

"Valuable technology?" Casey asked.

"And impressive," Chuck said. "Cutting edge."

"Make believe," Casey mumbled.

Sarah shot Chuck a look that said, 'if he only knew' as she idly twirled the blue flower between her fingers. "Sure, Casey," she said sweetly.

"I do have one question," Morgan said, still studying the frozen figures on the screen. "What the _hell_ is up with the movie?"

'Stay in the tower, Rapunzel.' The words echoed in her head as she stared into the spot between the rocks where Eugene had disappeared with his satchel. 'Stay in the boat.'

"He's been gone too long, Pascal," she said to the chameleon on her shoulder. "He said he'd be right back."

All of the doubts and fears that her mother had instilled in her over the years rushed back. She remembered that last conversation in the forest, when Mother had given her the satchel. 'That's how fast he'll leave you . . .'

"No!" Rapunzel said aloud. "He said he'd be back and I believe him." She reached into the boat and retrieved her trusty frying pan, creeping carefully toward the opening.

Two hulking figures, the Stabbington brothers, were tying Flynn to the mast of a small boat. His hands had already been tied to the wheel, along with the stolen crown. 'They're setting him up,' she thought. She lifted the frying pan and moved cautiously towards the two men, bringing the heavy pan down on one of their heads with a loud clang. The other brother looked up in surprise as she struck him on the head too.

She stroked Eugene on the cheek. "Eugene!"

He didn't move. "Eugene!"

She turned her head and Pascal darted down her arm to stick his long tongue in Eugene's ear. He hated it, but it seemed like the quickest way to wake him up. "Gah!" he yelped.

"Don't freak out!" Rapunzel hissed.

Eugene looked around quickly, his eyes widening as he noticed his hands tied to the wheel along with the crown and widening still further when he noticed the Stabbington brothers out cold. "We need to get out of here and fast," he said. "Nice work, by the way."

Rapunzel smirked as she pulled a very long, very sharp blade from a sheath on one of the brothers to make quick work of the ropes. "Eugene . . ."

"Blondie," he said, shaking his head appreciatively. "You were supposed to stay in the boat," he grunted as he rolled one Stabbington brother out of the boat and onto the rocky beach.

"You forgot the frying pan," she said matter-of-factly as she helped him roll the second brother off of the boat.

"So I did," he said as he pushed the boat off from the shore. "Where to, Blondie? Back to your tower or . . ."

"No," Rapunzel said softly. "I'm not going back."

Eugene looked at her, a soft smile on his face. "Ah. Something tells me maybe you've found a new dream."

Rapunzel sighed, reaching for his hand and giving it a squeeze. "Yes," she said. "I have a new dream."

* * *

><p>The security at Mintz's house was impressive for a private residence. Hell, it was impressive for any kind of civilian enterprise. But for Chuck and Sarah, it was, in fact, a piece of cake. They were safely inside within minutes, but a sweep of the first and second floors didn't reveal anything but an empty fridge and a houseful of Rent-a-Center furniture.<p>

There was additional security on the door to the basement, but aided by a palm print lifted from Mintz's old office at Disney the door swung open. They descended the rickety stairs cautiously and found . . . the laundry room.

"Wait," Sarah said, as Chuck turned back towards the stairs. "There's got to be more. This room is only about as big as the kitchen."

She was right, but there didn't appear to be any kind of breaks in the wall. Chuck turned on his infrared goggles and scanned the walls. "There," he said, spotting a button hidden behind a spider web draped shelf.

Sarah grinned and touched the button. The wall slid open and they stepped into a large, dark room. Chuck located a light switch and flicked it on. There were empty tables lining one wall, tables that bore the dusty outlines of computers and other equipment that had recently been removed, leaving only a handful of wires behind. "Damn," Sarah swore softly. "Cleaned out."

"Not quite," Chuck said slowly as he spotted something on the floor, something that appeared to be a handsome young man, a beautiful young woman with ridiculously long, braided hair and a bright green chameleon. He switched off his mic and motioned for Sarah to do the same.

"No," Sarah said firmly. "No. They. Are . Fictional."

Chuck shot her a lopsided grin and reached out to check the man's pulse. "That's a pulse," he said. "As in, real blood pumping through real veins."

"They must be actors. From the parks," she said shaking her head. "Look, I know what we saw yesterday but this is . . ."

"As crazy as having all of the government secrets in one person's head?" he said with a smirk.

"Chuck, we have to get them out of here until we figure this out. Mintz could come back . . ."

"Yeah, you're right," he agreed. "What about Casey?"

"What about him?" Sarah asked.

"We can't tell him. He'll think we've lost it. Not that he doesn't think I've lost it at least once a day but . . . well . . . if it's even possible that I'm right, we'll need to soften the blow."

"Chuck?" Sarah said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"What if you are right? What if . . . I can't believe I'm saying this . . . but what if you are? What do we do with them?"

"What we always do," Chuck said with smile. "Keep them safe and hopefully find a way to get them back."

"Right," Sarah said. "Right." She lifted the girl, Rapunzel, draping her over her shoulder in a fireman's carry and setting the lizard carefully inside her gear bag. She switched her mic back on. "We're all clear. Any equipment Mintz had here is gone but we did find something. Heading out now."

"Good idea," Chuck said as he hefted the young man onto his shoulder. It was much easier than he would have been but four years in the spy business had made him strong and fit. "Heavy for someone who's not real," he mumbled.

"Funny, Bartowski," Sarah laughed. "Very funny."

"All I'm saying is, I've been to Disneyland a hundred times and yes, the character costumes are amazing but these are too perfect and, well, Rapunzel is barefoot. In the parks, she wears shoes."

"And you know this how?" Sarah asked with a grin. "Do you have a thing for princesses?"

"You're the only princess in my life," he teased. "Princess Kick-ass."

"Nice, Bartowski," she laughed, glancing through the glass. "So what do we do?"

Chuck shook his head slowly. "I have a plan."

* * *

><p>Eugene Fitzherbert shook his head and sat up slowly, stretching gingerly and opening his eyes slowly. The room was brightly lit with two long benches along the walls and a glass window into another room. "Blondie," he mumbled.<p>

"Eugene," she groaned. "Where . . . where are we?"

"I . . . I told you to stay in the boat but you followed me and . . ." he squeezed his eyes shut. "Blondie, did you take out _both_ Stabbingtons with that frying pan of yours?"

"I . . . I did," she said, her voice brightening with pride. "They had you tied up to a boat with the crown. They were setting you up."

"You saved me," Eugene said quietly. "Again." He tilted his head, smiling softly at her. "Thank you."

She smiled back. "We were on a boat and everything went black." She glanced around, peering through the window at the three men and one woman on the other side. "Where are we and who are _they_?"

* * *

><p>Eugene was tempted to revert to his Flynn Rider persona as he faced the beautiful blonde, but there was something slightly <em>dangerous<em> about her, not to mention there was something in the way the tall man had looked at her had told him, quite clearly, 'off limits'.

Not that he was interested. The only blonde _he_ was interested in was the one with the crazy hair. "Who are you people?" he asked calmly as he faced her across the table.

"I'm the one asking the questions here," she said firmly. Then she smiled softly. "I'm Sarah. Bartowski. The tall, thin guy with the curly hair is my husband, Chuck. The big one is John Casey. The shorter one with the beard is Morgan Grimes. Casey and Morgan are on their way out for a bit. And you are?"

"Fl . . . er . . . Eugene Fitzherbert," he said. He'd made up his mind sometime between almost dying in the cave and realizing he was in love with Blondie on the lake that it was time to let Flynn Rider go.

"Formerly known as Flynn Rider?" she asked. "A known thief." She held up his satchel and removed the lost princess's crown.

"Er . . ." He thought for a minute, trying to figure out how to talk himself out of this one. "Look, arrest me if you have to, I can tell you're some kind of law, but . . ." he tilted his head towards the room next door, where Chuck was interviewing Rapunzel. "Please, don't keep her locked away in here." His voice was soft, almost pleading, very un-Flynn-like. "She's spent way too much time locked away."

"I used to be like you," Sarah said softly.

"What do you mean?" Flynn asked, his brows furrowed.

"Keeping everybody at arm's length. Never letting anyone get close. Never trusting anyone. Cutting my losses before I got burned." She turned toward her husband in the next room and a soft smile tugged at her mouth. "And then I fell, hard, for a guy who wasn't like anyone else I'd ever met. He was sweet and nerdy and incredibly, unbelievably brave."

Eugene swallowed hard. Sarah's Chuck sounded an awful lot like Rapunzel. "And?"

"And I . . . we . . . wasted a lot of time trying to pretend it wasn't real."

"How did you know, for sure, that it was?" Eugene asked, glancing at Rapunzel again.

"I would die for him," she said quietly. "And he would do the same for me."

Eugene nodded slowly. He had the feeling that, somehow, that had been put to the test more than once with those two. He thought about what he and Rapunzel had been through together, how she'd changed him. "Have you ever wanted to be someone else?"

Sarah laughed out loud. "Eugene, I've probably had more aliases than you have," she said. "The thing is, the only person I want to be now or ever is Sarah Walker Bartowski. Chuck . . . he makes me a better person. He has since I met him." Sarah tilted her head towards the other room. "If you're in love with her, let her know."

* * *

><p>"Call me Chuck," the tall man with the nice smile said kindly. "And you are?"<p>

"Rapunzel," she said blushing slightly.

"Gesundheit," Chuck teased. "Er, sorry."

Rapunzel gaped at him, wondering how he knew that that was exactly what Eugene had said when she'd first told him her name. "Are we in trouble, Chuck? I mean, Eugene, well . . ."

"He's a thief?" Chuck asked with a smile. "Yeah, we know."

"Are you . . . are you arresting him?" she asked softly. "Please, he's made some mistakes but . . . well have you ever met someone who seems one way at first but when you get to know them . . ." She blushed again, and mumbled, "I mean, well, I haven't met all that many people but . . . Eugene is . . ."

"You're not in trouble, at least not from us," Chuck assured her. "And no, we're not arresting Eugene Fitzherbert. Definitely out of our jurisdiction." He smiled reassuringly and glanced at his wife through the window. "And to answer your question, yes. I met a woman once who was smart and beautiful and who wouldn't let anyone get too close."

"What happened to her?" Rapunzel asked.

Chuck smiled and waved at the woman in the other room. "I married her. She didn't make it easy for me either, but . . . I guess I'd go through it all again to have what we have now, you know. But . . . can I give you some advice? I mean, I know you're young and . . . have, er, _probably_, led a sheltered life, but . . . love, the real kind? It doesn't actually come along that often. When you find it, let the other person know."

"I will," Rapunzel said softly. She watched Eugene talking to the woman, Chuck's Sarah, in the next room. There wasn't a single trace of his Flynn Rider persona, no arrogant self-assurance, no smolder to get out of a sticky situation. There was simply a quiet confidence and, when he turned and smiled at her, the soft, sweet smile that belonged to Eugene alone, something that made her heart beat wildly. "Chuck?"

"Yes?"

"What's going to happen to us?"

"I wish I knew," he answered honestly. "But I promise you, we'll do everything we can to get you back to where you came from. And when I promise something, I never, _ever_ break that promise. Ever."

* * *

><p>"Good thing we sent Casey and Morgan out to run down leads on Mintz," Chuck said to Sarah. They'd put Rapunzel and Eugene back together since they'd both seemed a little lost on their own.<p>

"If they're acting, then they're damned good," Sarah said. "Eugene there seems pretty genuine and pretty real. He's not quite sure of himself at the moment, exactly what I'd expect from a guy who's finally let someone in."

"Speaking from experience, Mrs. Bartowski?" Chuck teased.

"Yep," she said with a soft smile. "What about Blondie?"

"Blondie is, honestly, just as sweet and innocent as you'd expect from an eighteen-year-old who's lived a very, _very_ sheltered life." He glanced at the young couple in the other room. They were sitting close together on one of the benches, holding each other's hands and talking. "I'd love to see her up against Casey. How long do you think it'd be before she had him singing about his bonsai tree?"

"About a minute?" Sarah laughed. "I'd pay good money to see that. So," she tilted her head towards the window. "You mentioned a plan?"

"Yep. In the movie, in her world, Rapunzel has magic hair, right? Hair that can heal. We need a minor injury. If the hair glows, well . . ."

"I'll do it," Sarah said. "I've got a much higher pain threshold."

"Which is exactly why I have to do it," Chuck said. "Trust me."

"Always," Sarah said with a smile. "I bet our guests are hungry."

"Then I guess I'd better make some breakfast. Why don't you see if they want a change of scenery?"

"Good idea." Sarah let the young couple out of the holding cell while Chuck headed into the small galley kitchen that they'd added to Castle.

"What is this place?" Eugene asked, glancing curiously at the various monitors, buttons and lights.

"We call it Castle," Sarah informed him. "It's our headquarters and . . ."

Chuck screamed from the kitchen and darted into the room with a towel wrapped around his hand. "First aid kit?" he asked Sarah weakly. She started to stand but Rapunzel glanced at Eugene, who gave a small shrug. Rapunzel laid her hand on Sarah's arm.

"I . . . I can help."

"Do you know first aid?" Sarah asked.

"Not . . . exactly," she stammered, grabbing her braid and unraveling enough to wrap around Chuck's hand.

"What is she doing?" Sarah asked. "That's not exactly hygienic."

"Huh?" Eugene gaped. "Just . . . don't freak out!"

Chuck met Sarah's eyes over Rapunzel's head and they shared a smile. How many times had they said _that_ to each other over the years? "Alrighty then," Chuck said. "I'm not freaking out. Just curious."

"Just watch," Eugene said.

_"Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fates design, save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine."_

As she sang, her voice soft and sweet, her blonde hair began to glow, beginning at the roots and traveling through the coils of her braids to the ends, which were wrapped around Chuck's hand. The little chameleon grinned at Chuck and pointed at his hand.

Chuck felt a strange, warmth seep into his palm, felt the stinging pain stop, felt the skin resealing itself. When the incantation was done, she unwrapped his palm. The cut, which he'd made longer and deeper than necessary on purpose, was completely gone, as if it had never been there. "So, that's really interesting," he said, allowing his voice to rise just enough that he sounded shocked and awed by her unique gift.

"How long has it been doing that?" Sarah asked. Though she made her eyes wide with surprise, she honestly _was_ stunned by what she'd seen - bona fide magic, magic that proved without a doubt that the two very real people sitting across from her had somehow traveled from their _fictional_ world and ended up in her spy world.

The question was _how_ had they come to be here and how the _hell_ were they supposed to get them back?


End file.
